I Think Animation Is A Very Truthful

I'm Going To Work With Dan Clowes. After Charlie Kaufman, It's Hard To Fill Up The Gap. It's Hard To Find Somebody Who... A Lot Of Writers, I Can Clearly See The Desire Of Succeeding Before The Desire Of Expressing Themselves. Sometimes People Get Upset When You Want To Be Different. You Were Talking About "whimsical," Which Is A Nice Word. But Sometimes They Use The Word "quirky" In The Pejorative Sense. I Get Frustrated, Because They Feel Like I'm Doing Whatever I Want, And There Is No Ground, And I Don't Really Care. They Feel It's Cynical. But I Don't Think I Have Any Cynicism In Me.

I Don't Call Cut Between The Takes - It's My Way To Help The Actor Keep Focused. As Soon As You Say 'cut' You Have 10 People Jumping On Them And Everybody's Trying To Do A Great Job, And They Do, But Sometimes They Forget That The More Important Thing Is The Performance, Creating The Performance.

I Think Animation Is A Very Truthful Way To Express Your Thoughts, Because The Process Is Very Direct. That's What I've Always Liked About Animation, Particularly Abstract Animation. You Go From The Idea To Execution, Straight From Your Brain. It's Like When You Hear Someone Playing An Instrument, And You Feel The Direct Connection Between The Instrument And His Brain, Because The Instrument Becomes An Extension Of His Arms And Fingers. It's Like A Scanner Of The Brain And Thought Process That You Can Watch, Or Hear.

When I Saw The Matrix And Other Movies Of This Type, I Wished I Had Been Given The Opportunity To Express Myself With All This Technology And Do Something Sort Of Big In Scale, But The Right Material Never Really Came My Way.

When I Shoot Actors, I Have That Dilemma. I Want The Actor To Be Good, And Sometimes I Have To Push Them To A Place That Isn't Pleasant. I Always Think: 'is It Worth Doing For The Sake Of The Movie?' But I Have To Remember The Bigger Picture.